The New Cambridge Handbook of Contemporary China

Colin Mackerras

With ten independent parts, The Cambridge Handbook is both a
reference resource and a general introduction to contemporary China.
It concentrates on the period since 1990, but information about earlier
periods is provided where necessary as context or to illustrate long-term
patterns. The result should have something for anyone curious about
modern China; it is not just a reference for specialists.

Six of the sections are basically narrative in structure, most of
them around fifteen to twenty pages in length. Part two is a survey
of the political and legal systems of the People's Republic of China
(PRC), part five looks at some key issues in China's foreign relations,
particularly those with the United States and international organisations,
part six is a thirty page description of China's economy, part seven
covers demographics, part nine China's minorities (Mackerras' own
specialty), and part ten the education system. These are liberally
provided with graphs and tables, but those are integrated into the text —
the most indigestible portions are probably a three page list of all the
autonomous areas within the PRC and six pages listing the dates different
countries recognised the PRC (with comments on their positions on the
Taiwan question).

Four of the sections are more oriented to browsing. Part one is an
eighty page chronicle of events — going back to 1949, but with much
more space for recent events (half a page on 1950, but nearly ten
pages on 1999). Part three offers thirty pages of brief biographies of
eminent contemporary figures. Part eight is a geographical gazetteer,
surveying individual provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities.
And part four is a thirty page bibliography, offering not just lists of
titles but over two hundred mini-reviews (brief paragraph descriptions)
grouped thematically (following much the same structure as the book as a
whole). This restricts itself to books published since 1990, in English.
This bibliography is my favourite part — I find I haven't read a single
one of the books listed...